San Jose Estate Law Blog

You may often be placed in a precarious position when you are party to the estate of a loved one in San Jose. If, for example, the terms of your family member or friend’s will are not what you anticipated (and you choose to challenge them), many might write off your actions as you simply being petty. Yet there may indeed be a number of valid reasons for you to challenge the terms of a will (such as the decedent promising you a certain asset or property during their life, yet that stipulation not being in their will). Many in your same position have come to us here at Temmerman, Cilley & Kohlmann LLP concerned that such a challenge will automatically invoke a will’s no-contest clause. 

No-contest clauses are stipulations placed in estate instruments that limit one’s interest in an estate if they choose to challenge the terms of the instrument. Oftentimes, a no-contest clause might disinherit you entirely if you object to the terms of the will. Yet no-contest clause enforceability has often been a topic of debate. Thus, the state has outlined when such clauses are actually enforceable. 

When estate planning, you'll need to decide what to do with proceeds from retirement accounts and life insurance policies. In this case, beneficiary designations determine who receives these assets after you die. It's important to understand how beneficiary designations actually work to ensure your estate will be dispersed in the correct manner after you're gone. That's why The Balance offers the following information. 

When you open a retirement account or purchase a life insurance policy, you'll be asked to designate a beneficiary. At this point, you'll fill in a person's name and how much of the asset they will receive upon your death. You can also name backup heirs in the event the first choice is also deceased at the time of your death. It's important to review this information on a regular basis, especially if it's been a while since your first set up the account. 

Most high-asset couples already have a will in place, and several in California also have living trusts completed so that they can avoid the probate process, transferring assets sooner with smaller legal fees. If you haven’t set up a living trust, or know that your parents have one, you may not realize that living trusts can protect assets and their terms remain private information upon death (which probate does not).

The inheritance rights of one's natural heirs through California's intestate succession guidelines have been detailed on this blog in the past. A decedent's children are entitled to a portion of their intestate estate if the children survive them. That is, of course, provided that they qualify as one's child under state law. 

Section 6450(a) of California's Probate Code states the obvious fact that one is child of their natural or biological parents (regardless of whether their parents were married). This entitles them to inherit assets through the state's intestate succession guidelines (again, regardless of their parents' marital status). Yet what happens if it is the other way around? Are there stipulations that must be met in order for a parent to qualify to inherit a child's assets?